JP rules the roost again

I t ’s fitting, if not surprising, that John Patrick Mcmanus should end the 2020 Cheltenham Festival as its top owner, with seven winners over the four days, writes REG MOORE.

For there is no one who puts more back into National Hunt racing than 69-year old Limerick man JP, who has around 400 horses in training. He uses the best trainers available on both sides of the Irish Sea. But his patronage does not end at the gates of Willie Mullins and Nicky Henderson.

He has lodgings for some of his animals with much smaller operators like Nick Gifford at Findon, West Sussex, and Ben Haslam, 292 miles away in Middleham. Both men owe the business to the loyalty that runs through Mcmanus’s veins after their fathers, Josh Gifford and Pat Haslam, helped Mcmanus decades ago. A currency gambler and former course bookmaker, he now has 66 lifetime Festival winners, making Mcmanus head and shoulders above the competition.

Ma n y years a g o, when he and Jo h n Magnier had an almost 30% shareholding in Ma n c h e s t e r Un i t e d , he was asked about an imminent Cheltenham runner.

It was a novice hurdler, forecast to start as a certainty at around 1/ 4. Asked if he would have £4 million on, he replied: “Sure, if I have the four, why would I want the one?”

In days when early prices seem everything, JP has this advice for punters: “Wait until the very last minute, so that you have every scrap of available information.” The pick of Mcmanus’ magnificent seven was surely the six- year- old winner of the Champion Hurdle, French import Epatante, who showed instant acceleration.